1. The structure of a scientific paper generally includes an abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion sections. 2. The introduction section should clearly describe the problem being addressed and state the main contributions or idea of the paper. 3. The body of the paper, including the methods, results, and discussion sections, provides evidence and analysis to support the claims made in the introduction.

1. MUHOYI H
Research Method
GGH400

2. Structuring a Scientific Paper
1. Graphs, tables, maps (your data)
2. Results
3. Methods
4. Discussion
5. Conclusion
6. Introduction
7. Abstract
8. Title

3. In general the structure of a paper is
organised in sections
Section Length Readers
Title < 16 words 1,000
Abstract 250 words 100
Introduction 1-2 pages 100
Methods 3 pages 3
Results, Discussion 1-2 pages 10
Conclusion 1 page 2

4. The first step
Before writing a research paper one needs
to ask what is the idea that the paper is
intended to communicate

5. Therefore, an idea should be
infectious, e.g.,
A new way of looking at objects, ‘model’
New way of manipulating objects (i.e.,
technique)
New information – update our knowledge
base

6. Second step
Identify the relevant community which may
find the idea useful
Experts working in the area
Current and future researchers
Decision-makers, policy makers

7. Third step
Understand the information needs of
that target community

8. The Fourth Step
Is to Write, Revise, Submit for Publish

9. Ideally your paper should just have one clear
sharp idea
So if you have lots of ideas, write lots of
papers

10. To write effectively, tell a story
Here is a problem
It’s an interesting problem
It is an unsolved problem
I wish to know how to solve the problem (hook)
Introduction

11. Explain how your new idea solves
the problem
Here is my idea
Methods:
Details

12. Show how useful your idea is
My idea works
Here is how my idea compares to other people’s approaches
Results &
Discussion

13. In the Introduction
Describe the problem briefly
Nail or state your contributions
Make certain the reader is in no doubt what the
idea is.
e.g., the main idea of this paper is…
Properties of
your solution

14. Use examples to introduce the
problem and your idea
Consider this program, which has an interesting
bug, …
We will show an automatic technique for identifying
and removing such bugs

15. Make your contributions explicit
We have built a GUI toolkit in, …and used it to….
The result is half the length of a Java …
Or the innovative features of our model are …

16. Avoid putting related work in the
introduction
Rather new stuff should come first
READER
IDEA

17. The role of body of the paper is to:
provide evidence to support claims
made in the introduction

18. Discussion: Move 1
State the study’s major findings that provide the
answer to the question stated in the introduction
Explain the meaning and importance of your
findings
Consider potential explanations of the findings
Give results
meaning

19. Discussion: Move 2
Compare and contrast your findings with those of
other published results
Explain any discrepancies and unexpected results
State the limitations, strengths of your study
Provide
research context

20. Dealing with related work
But do not downplay the work of others
Be generous to the competition
e.g., we improve on their earlier work in the following
ways
Our work differs from …

21. Discussion: Move 3
Close the paper
Indicating the importance of the work by stating
applications, implications, …

22. Listen to your readers
Get your paper read by as many friendly guinea pigs as is
possible
Ask them to show you where they are getting lost or get
unmotivated
Suppose I explain it to your this way

23. Getting expert help
When you think you are done, send the draft to
the competition.
You could write “can you help me to ensure
that I describe your work fairly”